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When was the last time you looked at your employee handbook? You have one of those, don’t you? If you do, dig it out of your desk drawer or file cabinet and look it over. If you haven’t created an employee handbook yet, now is the time to do it.
Employee handbooks serve two purposes: they train employees and they set rules and regulations. As the owner or manager of your driving range, what may seem like common sense to you—attendance, dress code, professional behavior guidelines—won’t necessarily be obvious to your employees. It’s important to educate them so they’ll know what’s expected of them.
If you don’t take the time to set down your rules and regulations in writing right from the beginning, you’re apt to let things slide over time. Ironing out the rules in a handbook won’t let range owners or managers off the hook from having to enforce the rules, but will instead give them a way of pulling back on the reins if an employee’s behavior starts to slip.
The contents will vary from company to company, but there are several key topics you will want to address in the employee handbook for your range:
• Company Goals and Mission Statement: When you include this kind of information, each time your employees open their handbooks, they are reminded of how they contribute to the company.
• General Policies and Procedures: In this section, you should include information about everything from pay periods and holidays to dress code and personal telephone use. Writing down these policies leaves little room for misunderstandings, which could happen as early as an employee’s first day on the job.
• Leave Policies: Vacation time, sick leave, personal leave, jury duty, funeral leave, maternity leave and military leave are the most common types of excused absences. In this section of the handbook, list your company’s leave policies and allowances on each type of absence.
• Employee Benefits: In this section, include information about any benefits available to your employees—health and dental insurance are the most common. You also could choose to include any work-life benefits such as gym memberships and discounts for wellness-related activities, if those apply.
• Disciplinary Policies: Most importantly, you should make sure that your employees have easy access to written documentation of the company’s tolerance of various behaviors—especially explanations of what constitutes various types of sexual harassment and the consequences of engaging in that type of harassment. Include procedures on how to report and solve employee conflicts and the consequences of betraying the company. Make sure either you cover all possible employee infractions, such as theft, embezzlement or misuse of company property, or use vague enough language so your employees will know you will deal with any incidents as they happen in a manner you see fit. But even if you manage to avoid policy altogether and focus strictly on procedures, to be on the safe side it’s probably best to have your legal counsel review the handbooks before presenting them to your employees.
When hiring new employees, include the employee handbook with any introductory materials you give them. Have them take the handbook home, read it and sign either the handbook itself or a separate form acknow-ledging that they’ve read and understand it. You may even want to take it one step further and give your new hires a quiz about proper procedures once they’ve had a chance to familiarize themselves with the book. Periodically review the contents of the hand-book (ask your employees to do the same, too) and revise it when necessary.
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